the Government of India is preparing a report to show the hazard to workers' health from white asbestos is manageable. This came out in a response of the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers

with each puff of cigarette smoke, one may add on a few virtual years. Scientists have discovered that the smoke suppresses a gene that prevents premature aging. The gene, called sirutin or sirt

About 300 people in Japan's Hyogo and Chiba prefectures sought medical treatment, with one girl in serious condition, in the last week of January after consuming frozen meat dumplings produced by

Philippines recently ordered Novartis to pull out its anti-arthritis painkiller from the country. It is feared that the drug lumiracoxib, also sold as prexige, causes liver damage. The Bureau of Food

>> Mali's government has ordered the closure of 104 refined cooking oil factories across the country after an investigation revealed most of them don't have necessary equipment to produce

Increased carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere also could worsen air pollution worldwide and lead to the deaths of up to 22,000 people a year, a new study shows. Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels from burning fossil fuels have been linked to sea-level changes, snowmelt, disease, heat stress, severe weather, and ocean acidification, but this is the first study to link CO2 rise to pollution. Because carbon dioxide doesn't directly affect respiration, it hasn't been classified as an air pollutant. But the study, led by Mark Jacobson of Stanford University, predicts that as temperatures and water vapor rise because of extra atmospheric CO2, ozone pollution levels also will rise. Using a high-resolution model that correlates pollution levels to human health, Jacobson found that each 1.8-degree rise in temperature could increase yearly air pollution deaths in the USA by about 1,000, which he extrapolated to 22,000 worldwide. Jacobson notes that many of these deaths would likely occur in smoggy urban areas.